Blog Roll Updated

As I find new blogs that are both informative & entertaining (and garden-related), I will update the list on the right. For now, we have:


Garden Rant
Greenwalks
Moxie Gardener
Sustainable Gardening Blog
You Grow Girl™ - Gardening for the People
DC Urban Gardeners
DigginFood

It's great to learn from the experience of others (even if they are equally new to gardening! Perhaps they have encountered something I haven't...) as well as "borrow" landscape or garden designs.

Any other recommendations?

Arlington Homes & Gardens, Part 1

This is the first edition of what I hope to be a monthly post: Arlington Homes & Gardens.

I am a big fan of walking. I find walking around Arlington neighborhoods a great way for exercise, catching up with friends and finding good landscaping ideas for my own home. This way I can see what plants work in my climate as well as ones that look good with the Arlington brick-style homes. It's a great way to learn from others. And I've noticed that Arlingtonians are awesome at taking the same circa 1930-40s home and really making it unique, despite it being the exact same layout as the rest of the block. There are so many different variations on the theme of the yards!

This house, which I think is more of a "meadow" theme, has my favorite garden so far. Fa-vor-ite. Note the green roof (close ups below)! Also, the front yard is 100% garden. No lawn. Love it.



I also love the upside down tomato planters hanging from the roof of the porch. Both decorative & functional!


Now, one thing to keep in mind with this kind of garden is that it doesn't just happen overnight. It takes a few years for plants to establish and fill in the gaps. Of course, you could spend a *fortune* on plants & not have any gaps. This would certainly provide an instant garden. However, after a few years you'd have to dig up plants to give everything a little room to grow.

Remember, there's a difference between "natural" and "overgrown"!

Weeds.

Ever wonder: Is this a baby plant or a weed? Or, perhaps, is this a weed that is going to look pretty or ugly? (I personally don't mind the violets that pop up all over our lawn. They are purdy.)

Here's a site with lots of pictures if you already have an idea what you're dealing with: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/weeds_multi.html and http://www.wssa.net/Weeds/ID/PhotoGallery.htm

Here's a site where you can search for weeds by their appearance: http://weedid.aces.uiuc.edu/

With all the rainy weather the DC area has been having, it should be easy to pluck them out of the ground. Do it now before they set seeds...which will just make weeding a bigger chore next year!

Strawberries: The First Sign of Summer

Our first strawberry. I gave to the husband (Mr. Radish) and he graciously let me have a little bite. Holy cow! Delicious. I forgot how good strawberries could taste. This was so superior to the grocery store (and, occasionally the varieties at the Farmer's Market), I'm seriously considering devoting more of the garden to a strawberry patch. Currently we've got a 5 ft. x 3 ft. plot & 2 pots with them. And each plant next year will give up a quart or so of berries...

Maybe I should hold off...

I'm letting the ones in the pots produce, but I'm still pinching off the buds of the ones in the ground per the instructions they came with.

I've already discussed what strawberries need to survive. But, after they are in the ground (or pot) and flourishing, what's next? One of my friends, E, recently asked me the "Now what?" question. And, that was a really good question! This is my first year growing strawberries, so I did some research to find out the answers. (Specifically, Rodale's Garden Answers, Grow Magazine- Vol. 2 & Organic Gardening- June/July 2009.) Here are the answers:

Will the red berries get bigger if I leave them on the plant longer?
Nope. Strawberry plants have pre-determined sizes. Some varieties produce big fruit, some produce itty-bitty. Once they are red, they aren't going to get significantly bigger. However, clipping the runners before they set fruit will encourage larger strawberries because the plant will put more energy in producing fruit than creating "daughters."

If I pick the strawberries will I get more?
I can't find anything to back this up one way or another. However, it would make sense to me that if you harvest berries as soon as they are totally red & not let them sit around for a second, then the plant has the energy it was sending to the fruit to do something else. And just maybe that something else is to produce another berry!

Am I supposed to be fertilizing them or anything?
Grow recommends a slow release fertilizer every month during the growing season of the second & third years. Organic Gardening recommends a well-balanced organic fertilizer monthly during growing season, specifically a mixture of fish emulsion & seaweed (portions not mentioned). You should, however, stay away from high-nitrogen fertilizers as that will result in lots of leaves & not as many fruits.

Also, weed. Weeds compete with strawberries' shallow roots and potentially harbor diseases.

Oh, and when it's dry out, water them, but try to do it from ground level. Wet fruit & leaves can lead to disease.

How long should I leave them on the vine once they turn red?
They are ready for consumption the moment they are all red.

Finally, what do I need to do at the end of the season?
For the Mid-Atlantic area Rodale recommends shearing back the plants after they are done producing. You can do this with a lawnmower set to 1.5-2" (or, if you're in a raised bed like me, use your scissors). Dig up any rogue "daughters" & remove every single weed. Then spread a 1-in layer of compost over the whole bed, water, fertilize with diluted fish emulsion and apply straw mulch.

In late winter when you see pale new leaves beginning to grow, pull back the mulch around the crowns.

All About: Ground Cherries

I had been lusting after ground cherries after reading about them in Organic Gardening Magazine. (Note the adorable & awesome-ness of the chocolate dipped ground cherries.) They look like a golden cherry tomato wrapped in a tomatillo husk. Which isn't a *huge* surprise since they are in the tomato family!

Anywho, they apparently have a sweet-tart taste and no pit in the middle. HOLLA! Plus, if keep in a cool, dry place & in its husk, they keep for months.

Despite all this awesomeness, ground cherries were not to be found in my local nurseries or my usual seed ordering catalogs. I figured I'd try again next year. Until....

I found out my CSA gives away seedlings and that this year, ground cherries were up for grabs! Hurray! The husband sacrificed a few hours of his day to go up & get us 2 plantlets of ground cherries (along with 2 more basil plants & 2 epazote).

What do these guys need? Full sun. Well draining soil (seriously well draining...no clay allowed!). Frost-free weather (meaning they'll be an annual for me). A fair amount of space (I'm going to try to trellis mine). Love (who doesn't need that?!?) .

If these guys work out, anticipate ground cherry chutney or ground cherry cobbler recipes posted!

:)

Book Review: From the Ground Up

Last month, I happened upon Arlington Library's big book sale. I checked out the gardening section (there were perplexing fewer people there) and snatched up Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire and Amy Stewart's From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden. I had to get the former based on everything I've heard about In Defense of Food and The Omnivores Dilemma, but I felt compelled to get the latter because of it's title. You may notice that the subhead to this blog is "gardening & cooking from the ground up" (once I get some produce, we'll talk about the "cooking" part). I thought myself quite clever coming up with that line. Apparently, I was not alone.

Anyways, I get home with my scores (for a total of $3 no less!) and put them on a table, to be forgotten until today. It's quite summery outside in the DC area now. I did all my garden "chores" Saturday & Sunday so that I would be free to do whatever I felt like today, Memorial Day, a coveted day off. And, as it so happened, I felt like reading. I picked up Amy Stewart's book and headed over to Meadowlark Gardens to sit on a bench or in a rocking chair and read outside among the flowers (we're members so it was free. Additionally, we don't have comfortable chairs to sit outside). I then realize that I have been reading Amy Stewart for months now on the Garden Rant blog! It's very funny how the stars align sometimes...

From the Ground Up is a quick, fun, and informative read. Amy Stewart describes all of her triumphs and mistakes, unapologetically, in her first garden year. Like Amy, I grew up in the South (she is from Texas, I'm from Florida) and gardens weren't really prized. Lawns ruled supreme. Sure, people did have plants & trees in their yard, but they were solely there to accent the lawn. Save my grandfather's terraced garden (which I only remember existing when I was very small. Later it became more lawn) and one summer of gardening by my mother, I don't remember anyone having "gardens." And, I didn't really think of gardening until I was older, like Amy as well. When we started looking at homes to buy last year, a space where I could plant something was put on the "Must Have" list. Also, like Amy, I had little gardening daydreams about me pulling a few weeds, picking handfuls of flowers & tomatoes, and waving at my husband inside as he worked on his computer inside (all while wearing a floppy, wide-brimmed straw hat, pink gardening clogs and purple gloves no less.).

And, like Amy, I learned that gardening is both more work and more satisfying than my daydream. In each chapter, Amy discusses a particular garden story. Whether it's cats, dirt, planning, or tomatoes, she's got a wonderful story to tell that, if you're a first time gardener, you can identify with. Promise. Additionally, at the end of each chapter Amy gives some solid gardening advice, from how to prune roses to what plants to grow to attract beneficial insects to a recipe for a gardener's bath.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts from the book:

{When talking about her father practicing his guitar & the face he got when he made a mistake, even though *she* couldn't hear it}: "It didn't occur to me that the same might be true of gardening, that gardening, like music, could demand practice, patience, a willingness to make mistakes."

{I think this point is incredibly true}: "There is an old saying that if you have a dollar and a garden, spend ninety cents on the soil and ten cents on the plants, but I hadn't heard that saying yet. I wasn't interested in dirt. I was interested in plants- big, flowering, vigorous plants- and I wanted them now."

{And, finally}: ".....how simple gardening looked. So easy. So obvious. Pull the weeds, turn the earth, mark a straight line, and drop some seeds in. Water. Wait......What could be easier? What, really, is all the fuss about?"

I feel as though Amy has written the book about my first garden. Which is probably a good thing because she is much better at the story telling!

I'm in a fight.

With a bunny.

That's right folks, I'm dukin' it out with the cutest little brown bunny of all time. I hate to do it, but I don't really see a viable way around it.

At first the little bugger was eating the grass. I have zero problemo with that. Less for me to mow! And s/he is Oh-So-Cute when it darts up & down the garden path as if it's doing laps. It gives me a little smile when I think about *how* adorable that is.


So, "What's the problem?" you might be asking yourself.


I'll tell you what the problem is! The creature is eating my toad lilies! My favorite plant in my yard! If s/he would have just stuck to the ugly bushes or hostas, I would not be mad at it. I thought the slugs were getting to the toad lilies as they were coming up. Nope: Baby Bunnies. I totally caught it this morning, red f'ing handed. And, of course, it just hopped a few feet away under our rhododendron & looks up at me all innocent-like. As if to say: "Who, me?"


Why do bunnies have to be so cute?


Anyways, I can't stand for the decimation of my favorite plant, no matter how cute the eater is. Thus, I will be bringing out the bloodmeal, cayenne pepper spray, and, if I can coax Mr. Radish to pee in a cup, urine (desperate times call for desperate measures!). If this doesn't work, I will move to that spray stuff that bunnies & deer don't like.

What do you do to keep the bunnies away from your favorite plants? Unfortunately a fence is not an option in this case.